Researchers from the PCMI team have just published an article in the RSC journal Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, featured on the inside back cover of issue 9, 2026.
This work, led by Dr. Luyao ZOU, the Chaire Professor Junoir (CPJ), unravels the complex quantum mechanics of an important radical, the aminomethyl radical (CH2NH2), for the first time. This radical is a highly reactive intermediate with significant implications for atmospheric chemistry and astrochemistry.
In close collaboration with his colleagues from the ISMO (Paris-Saclay) and PhLAM (Univ Lille) teams, the researchers have successfully recorded the spectroscopic evidence of the large-amplitude inversion tunnelling motion, which is a pure quantum mechanical phenomena. The tunnelling motion creates distinctive line splittings whose spacing indicates the inversion barrier between the two equilibrium structure.
The tunnelling motion of the aminomethyl radical has never been thought of in previous studies. This study provides the first complete description of the radical’s internal motion and its spectral line prediction, which is the key information for its search in space and in atmospheres of planets.
REFERENCE
Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 2026, 28, 5681–5691. DOI: 10.1039/D5CP02849C
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